Playbill News: "Producers of the Tony Award-nominated revival of West Side Story announced Aug. 25 that slight lyric changes were implemented into the production at Broadway's Palace Theatre on Aug. 20.
Two songs that had been performed in Spanish since the show's opening — 'A Boy Like That' ('Un Hombre Asi'), sung by Tony winner Karen Olivo, and 'I Feel Pretty' ('Siento Hermosa'), led by Tony nominee Josefina Scaglione — are now delivered mostly in English. The Spanish sung by the Sharks in the 'Tonight' (Quintet) remains."
4 comments:
I think that shows such as West Side Story, and newer shows like In The Heights, enhance the performance with the spanish woven throughout. The spanish language used in these shows creates a richer and more realistic story. It's even exposing audience members to the different languages within these sometimes looked over cultures.
This dissapoints me. Arthur Laments, prided himself on how he was updating West Side, and to revert back to new lyrics is sad. It was a new show and was much tougher then the original, more realistic.
I know people didn't like it, but it was still the same story. It just dissapoints me that something new or as Laments said "something experimental" failed. There seems to be only a list of fool proof things that will guarantee a sucess on broadway. I guess spanish lyrics were not on that list.
I don't even remember those two songs ever being sung in spanish. I have the original cast production and have seen a professional performance and they have always been sung in English. Or are they talking about some mere parts here and there have been translated? Either way, the spanish in the story does create the mood and feel of the play and it's a shame to see it taken away. However, I understand language barriers have the tendancy to aggrivate certain audiences and that they wanted it to read loud and clear to everyone. West Side Story was revived on Broadway to bring in the cast and open up the demographic of audiences to help the hurting economic state so they have to do what they have to do. Perhaps I am just excusing it because I take it for what it's intent was: revenue with class.
When I heard that they had translated some of the lyrics in West Side Story I was ecstatic. I have to honestly say I have always found the original piece a bit insulting. The piece is written about the Hispanic culture, albeit in New York City, but it never seemed to truly embrace the culture it was trying to represent. I thought the integration of Spanish into the piece would bring it home for more people and make it seem like a more authentic representation of the Hispanic culture. Unfortunately it seems like the modern audience wasn't ready to embrace a new West Side Story.
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